Hydrogels are cross-linked hydrophilic macromolecules that contain a certain amount of water. Due to their biocompatible, highly tunable and hydrophilic nature, hydrogels have attracted much attention in the applications of chemical, biomedical and pharmaceutical fields over the past twenty years. In particular, thermo-sensitive hydrogels, which can undergo phase transition or swell/deswell as ambient temperature changes, endow the drug delivery system with enhanced local drug penetration, desirable spatial and temporal control, and improved drug bioavailability. These merits facilitate their extensive applications in drug delivery. In this review, we focus on advances in the development of different thermo-sensitive polymers as a scaffold for drug delivery, including poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (pNIPAAM), poloxamer, polyethylene glycol/poly(lactic acid)co-(glycolic acid) (PEG/PLGA), and chitosan. The state-of-the-art thermo-sensitive hydrogels for various pharmaceutical applications, such as anti-tumor drug delivery, transdermal drug delivery, ocular drug delivery, nasal drug delivery, and buccal drug delivery, are elaborated. Finally, the future research perspectives and challenges are also discussed, which could facilitate the translation of thermo-sensitive hydrogels for drug delivery from bench to bedside.

The first small-molecule based αvβ₃-targeted NIR-II/PET dual-modal probesviabase-catalyzed thiol-addition chemistry were concisely assembled and evaluated.

Cancer is one of the most fatal diseases for decades. Aggregation‐induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) have been recently used as molecular imaging or therapeutic agents in cancers, due to the advantages of large Stokes shift, high quantum yield, great biocompatibility, and strong photostability. AIEgens can specifically target different types of cancer via diverse targeting strategies. AIEgen‐based fluorescence imaging, especially near‐infrared imaging, demonstrated deep penetration and suitable signal‐to‐noise ratio, which allows reliable in vivo cancer imaging. Combined with other imaging modalities, AIEgen‐based multimodal imaging could provide multidimensional cancer hallmarks from different perspectives. In addition, AIEgen‐based phototherapy can be used for photodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy, which facilitate ablation of cancer cells with good biosafety and high therapeutic effects in vivo. AIEgens nanoparticles fabricated with some specific chemicals, drugs, or siRNA, could display synergistic therapeutic effects for cancers. This paper comprehensively describes the current status and future perspectives of AIEgens, which have showed a great potential for the future preclinical and clinical translation on in vivo molecular imaging and theranostics in cancer.

Pathology is the medical specialty concerned with the study of the disease nature and causes, playing a key role in bridging basic researches and clinical medicine. In the course of development, pathology has significantly expanded our understanding of disease, and exerted enormous impact on the management of patients. However, challenges facing pathology, the inherent invasiveness of pathological practice and the persistent concerns on the sample representativeness, constitute its limitations. Molecular imaging is a noninvasive technique to visualize, characterize, and measure biological processes at the molecular level in living subjects. With the continuous development of equipment and probes, molecular imaging has enabled an increasingly precise evaluation of pathophysiological changes. A new pathophysiology visualization system based on molecular imaging is forming and shows the great potential to reform the pathological practice. Several improvements in “trans-,” including trans-scale, transparency, and translation, would be driven by this new kind of pathological practice. Pathological changes could be evaluated in a trans-scale imaging mode; tissues could be transparentized to better present the underlying pathophysiological information; and the translational processes of basic research to the clinical practice would be better facilitated. Thus, transpathology would greatly facilitate in deciphering the pathophysiological events in a multiscale perspective, and supporting the precision medicine in the future.